Little League Rules vs Local Town Rules in Tourney
Question
In a recent Tee Ball Tournament that my child was playing in, we had a question about playing time and innings. In the LL Official Rule book regarding tournaments it states under Tournament Playing Rules: Rule 13 Regulation Game: Each tournament game must be played to the point of being an official game: a. Regulation games are of four or more innings (five or more innings for Junior/Senior/Big League baseball) in which one team has scored more runs than the other (three and one-half (3 1/2)(four and one-half (4 1/2) for Junior/Senior/Big League Baseball) if the home team is ahead). At the beginning of the season, it had been voted on by all the towns presidents (we have 10 different towns inter-leaguing)that each tee ball game will be played for 55 minutes.
This particular town for the tournament decided to have a meeting with all the coaches that were coming to the tournament (we were not notified about it until about an hour before meeting) to have them decide who knows what, but one of the rules supposedly adopted was that it would be a 3 inning game. We were not able to make the meeting due to time of notification and our league president requested the rules of the tournament, which she never got. Rule 15 in LL official rule book states Unauthorized Agreements: No agreements shall be made between managers and/or Tournament Directors and/or umpires contrary to Tournament Rules.
My question is (and yes, I know, this is just tee ball) should we be able to appeal this 3 inning rule since it states in the official rule book about 4 innings.
Answer
Hey Tracy,
You can appeal, but you will get no where and will be wasting your time. In tournament play, it would be too much of a hassle for anything to change in this instance.. By complaining, you may, however, help fix things up for future instances.. But that's about it..
In tournament play, one change, could have a trickle down affect on the tournament schedule and could disrupt all the games.
Sorry and Good Luck...
Dennis
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